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4    100    iJ33 

ODE  ON  THE  EXPOSITION 
STERLING 


<Z-s 


' 


Copyright,  191 5,  by  A.  M.  Robertson 
Edition:  525  copies 


HCWRY  MORSE  STErHENS 


Printed  by  Taylor  6?  Taylor,  San  Francisco 


TO  ALBERT  M.  BENDER 


' 


5139O9 


Voices  are  crying  from  the  dust  of  Tyre, 
From  Karnak  and  the  stones  of  Babylon— 
We  raised  our  pillars  upon  Self-Desire, 
And  perished  from  the  large  gase  of  the  sun. 

Edwin  Markham. 


THE  ODE 


BE  YE  lift  up,  O  gates  of  sea  and  land, 
Before  the  host  that  comes, 
Not,  as  of  old,  with  roar  of  hurrying  drums, 
And  blase  of  steel,  and  voice  of  war's  command! 
Legions  of  peace  are  at  thy  borders  now, 
O  California,  and  ranks  whose  eyes 
Behold  the  deathless  star  upon  thy  brow 

And  know  it  leads  to  love. 
Wherefore,  give  thou  thy  banners  to  the  skies, 
And  let  the  clarions  of  thy  conquest  sound! 
For  thine  is  holy  ground, 
And  from  thy  heavens  above 
Falls  tenderly  a  rain  of  life,  not  death. 

Thy  sons  have  found 
Again  the  rivers  of  that  Paradise 
And  valleys  where  the  fig  and  olive  grow, 

Wherefrom,  one  saith, 
Man  journeyed  forth  in  tears,  and  long  ago. 

Be  ye  lift  up,  O  gates  of  many  halls, 

That  house,  sublime, 

The  trophies  and  the  nobler  spoils  of  Time! 
From  where  the  Orient  in  friendship  calls 

Across  her  oceanToads,— 

From  Africa's  abodes,— 
From  seas  whose  purple  bore  the  keels  of  Tyre,— 

From  islands  west  and  north,— 
From  lands  that  see  the  white  Andean  walls,— 

7 


From  those  frontiers  of  thunder  and  of  fire 
That  compass  Europe  now,  hath  man  sent  forth 
The  fruitage  of  his  labor  and  his  art. 
Behold  the  greatness  of  his  mind  and  heart 
Who  so  can  strive 

And,  though  the  earthquake  rive, 
And  War,  with  mailed  hands  at  the  race's  throat, 
Confirm  the  terrors  that  the  prophets  wrote 
And  all  the  stars  have  seen  since  Christ  was  born, 
Can  so  bear  witness  to  the  soul  within ! 
Yea!  from  Earth's  mire  of  ignorance  and  sin 

He  marches  with  the  morn, 
And  lays  a  new  commandment  on  the  sea, 
Bidding  it  set  the  continents  apart, 
And  of  the  trackless  heavens  is  he  free. 
Yet  those  are  but  the  lesser  of  his  dreams, 
When  the  white  vision  of  the  Future  gleams, 

And  Music  in  his  heart 
Makes  for  a  while  the  seraph  he  shall  be; 
For  he  would  sway  the  sun's  effulgent  beams, 
Vassal  to  that  diviner  sun,  his  brain, 
And  set  afar  the  years  of  Death, 

And  with  exultant  breath 
Cry  victory  on  matter  and  on  pain. 
Lo !  in  what  sorrow  and  mysterious  mirth 
Do  we  draw  up  against  the  Night  our  plan ! 
O  toil  of  ants,  beholding  the  great  Earth! 
O  Titans'  work,  seeing  how  small  is  man ! 

8 


II 

Audacious  age  of  the  affirming  word, 
The  useful  doubt,  the  kindly  sceptic  gaze, 

Greeting!  for  man  too  long  has  heard 
The  moans  of  war,  too  long  beheld  the  blaze 

Of  cities  on  the  skies 

Or  mirrored  in  the  flood, 
And  Horror  brooding  with  her  moonlike  eyes 
O'er  nations  at  debaucheries  of  blood. 

Let  now  the  veil  be  drawn 
That  hides  from  man  thine  inner  loveliness, 
While  the  young  eagles  of  thy  sciences 
Soar  from  their  pinnacles  against  the  dawn! 
For  thou  hast  shown  him  how  the  years  transmute 
The  dim  surmisings  of  the  larval  brute, 

And  hast  in  mercy  laid 
A  burden  on  his  weakness  and  his  wings— 
This  moth  for  whom  the  ranging  stars  were  made, 

This  groping  lord  of  things, 
Come  forth  from  night  unknown  to  ends  unseen, 
With  hint  of  what  the  constellations  mean. 

O  man  and  his  Adventure!  From  the  slime 

Of  old  abysses  and  the  hateful  hiss 

Of  dragons,  hath  he  journeyed  forth  to  this, 

Whose  soul  strikes  light  through  Time. 
What  seed  of  what  Design  was  in  that  soul 

And  what  its  destined  goal, 

That  he,  once  halt  and  blind, 
9 


Hath  won  the  peaks  above  the  brutish  years, 
And  in  the  astounding  crucibles  of  mind 
Seeketh  the  mighty  answer  to  his  tears? 
O  patient  toiler  in  the  silent  Night! 
Thy  triumphs  stand  about  us,  balm  and  book, 
Complexities  of  steel  and  engines  bright, 

The  wings  that  serve  our  speed, 

And,  whatso  way  one  look, 
A  myriad  shapes  of  human  joy  or  need. 
Here,  too,  the  wonders  of  thy  harvest  shine, 

The  corn,  the  fruit,  the  wine— 

The  bounties  great  and  fair 

That  thou,  with  loving  care, 
Hast  fostered  on  a  thousand  hills  and  plains, 

Trapping  the  distant  rains, 

And  on  the  wilderness 
Leading  new  rills  to  compensate  and  bless. 
And  here  the  silent  seraphim  of  Art 
Gase  out  august  above  the  human  streams. 
O  beauty  making  lonelier  the  heart, 
And  sending  forth  the  soul  on  deathless  dreams! 


So  have  we  striven  and  wrought,  that  one  time  were 
The  bestial  folk  of  midden  and  of  cave, 
And  now  with  lens  and  alchemy  do  test 
The  wandering  heavens  and  Earth  their  wanderer. 
With  toil  of  tireless  hands, 
10 


How  high  we  build,  this  side  the  awaiting  grave, 

Scorning  awhile  its  answer  and  its  rest. 

Yet,  can  it  be  we  build  upon  the  sands? 

Man's  eye  turns  manward  from  the  mote  and  star, 

And  sees  past  greatness  given  to  the  tomb, 

Nor  knows  what  destined  doom 
Waits,  vigilant,  where  the  Destructions  are. 
Lo !  as  a  mist  that  melts  before  the  day 
The  columns  and  the  courts  have  passed  away. 

Advancing  Time,  look  back 
To  where  in  mist  the  broken  pillars  fade, 
The  ghostly  milestones  of  thy  barren  track ! 
Who  took  the  blade  have  perished  by  the  blade, 
For  thine  the  years  when  the  old  empires  passed, 
With  wail  of  trumpets  from  a  gulf  of  blood, 

The  annihilating  flood 
Wherein  the  countenance  of  Doom  was  glassed. 

So  sank  they,  one  by  one, 
Who  had  gone  forth  in  mail  beneath  the  sun, 

And,  in  their  greed  or  lust, 
Dragged  lesser  nations  at  the  chariot  wheels. 
And  now  the  old  betrayal  of  the  dust 
Hath  found  them,  striking  from  the  anointed  brow 
The  crown,  and  sinking  all  the  intrepid  keels. 
The  desert  holds  the  oppressor  and  oppressed; 
The  winds  alone  are  great  in  Carthage  now; 
The  lizard  and  the  lichen  have  the  rest.  . 


ii 


What  flaw  in  their  foundations,  and  what  ill 

Upon  their  armored  lords, 

That  ever  down  the  years 
The  Worm  that  feeds  on  nations  had  its  fill? 
Not  all  the  sentried  ramparts  and  the  spears, 
Nor  yet  the  trident  and  the  walling  swords 

Could  stem  its  might. 
The  thousand  high'built  Babylons  of  light 
May  mock  the  stars  no  longer,  nor  their  kings 
Be  more  than  ashes  where  the  desert  finds 
Echoes  of  doom  and  conquest  on  its  winds, 

But  their  names  nevermore. 
What  flaw  in  their  foundations,  and  what  ill 

Upon  the  hearts  they  bore, 
That  now  the  jackal  litters  on  the  hill 

That  once  was  Pharaoh's  throne? 
The  question  holds  one  answer  and  but  one, 
Between  the  rising  and  the  setting  sun: 
They  are  the  realms  that  built  on  self  alone! 

And  we  till  now  have  built  as  even  they! 

And  dimly  and  in  few  the  vision  stands 

Of  that  new  City  built  not  on  the  sands; 

And  distant  still  the  sunlight  of  that  Day. 

For  walked  the  Babylonian  again 

Within  our  streets,  once  more  should  he  behold 

The  immeasurable  Care, 
That  ancient  curse  of  poverty  and  gold,— 


The  selfsame  twins  of  luxury  and  pain,— 

The  olden  madness  of  division  where 

The  poor  beg  work,  and  beg  for  it  in  vain, 

And  children  slave,  and  stones  are  given  for  bread, 

While  Mammon  lolls  on  cushions  of  his  fat, 

Whose  glut  not  all  the  toil  of  men  can  sate. 

Amid  the  tumult  and  the  hate, 
None  hears  the  distant  menace  of  the  tread 
Of  One  whose  hands  hold  darkness  and  the  dust,— 

Whose  reign  is  soon  or  late,— 
Whose  hunger  with  the  monarch's  pomp  is  fed,— 
Who  giveth  kingdoms  to  the  moth  and  rust, 
Above  whose  glories,  fleeting  as  a  breath, 
"Lo !  I  am  come ! "  the  Desolation  saith. 

IV 

Behold!  except  Love  build  the  House  of  Man, 
In  vain  we  labor  and  in  vain  we  guard ! 

In  vain  shall  Learning  scan 
That  heaven  where  the  hostile  suns  contend 
Or  inward  skies  of  atoms  manystarred, 
If  love  of  man  for  man  be  not  the  end. 

And  idly  Reason  strives, 

If  nevermore  we  find 
The  graver  glory  that  escapes  our  lives. 
Oh !  for  that  hour  when  all  see  clear  at  last, 

Who  now  go  blind, 

The  horror  and  the  brutehood  of  the  Past! 

13 


Oh!  for  some  higlvnoon  of  the  spirit,  when 
The  Radiance  be  given  unto  men 
That  was  the  star  of  heroes  and  the  Grail 
For  which  the  fearless  saints  of  science  died ! 
Oh !  for  the  Light  to  see  in  every  face 
A  mother's  love,  or  father's  tender  care, 
Or  brother's  faithfulness,  or  sister's  grace ! 

What  night  of  self  and  pride 
Is  on  us,  that  we  see  not  in  each  one 

The  lover  long'denied,— 
The  dearest  to  us  each  beneath  the  sun? 

The  selfsame  need  is  there 
For  hope  and  trust,  for  love  and  happiness; 

But  still  amid  the  press, 

Blinded,  we  pass  beside 
The  stranger,  and  he  fares  a  stranger  still, 
Nor  see  we  there  the  brother  or  the  sire; 
And  poor  men  hunger  on  the  wasteful  street, 

And  children  toil  and  tire, 
And  girls  go  downward  to  the  Social  111, 
And  life's  design  of  madness  lies  complete, 
That  Greed  and  Luxury  may  have  their  fill ! 

O  dark  and  cruel  State, 
Whose  towers  are  altars  unto  self  alone,— 

Whose  streets  with  tears  are  wet, 
And  half  thy  councils  given  unto  hate!  .< 
Shall  Time  not  hurl  thy  temples  stone  from  stone. 

And  o'er  the  ruin  set 
14 


A  fairer  city  than  the  years  have  known? 
Out  of  thy  darkness  do  we  find  us  dreams, 

And  on  the  future  gleams 
The  vision  of  thy  ramparts  built  anew. 
Mammon  and  War  sit  now  a  double  throne, 
Yet  what  we  dream,  a  wiser  Age  shall  do. 


Be  ye  lift  up,  O  everlasting  gates 

Of  that  far  City  men  shall  build  for  Man ! 

O  fairer  Day  that  waits, 
The  splendor  of  whose  dawn  we  shall  not  see, 
When  selfish  bonds  of  family  and  clan 
Melt  in  the  higher  love  that  yet  shall  be ! 
O  State  without  a  master  or  a  slave, 

Whose  law  of  light  we  crave 
Ere  morning  widen  on  a  world  set  free! 

Alas!  how  distant  are, 

To  watchers  of  the  Past, 
Thy  palms  of  peace,  thy  mercy  and  thy  truth ! 
Yet  Faith's  great  eyes  look  upward  to  her  star, 

Strong  in  immortal  youth: 
We  know  the  reign  of  Night  shall  end  at  last, 
And  all  the  ancient  evil  lie  undone. 

O  armies  of  the  sun, 
Your  war  is  on  the  darkness  and  its  tears! 

Across  the  gulf  of  years 
We  hear  your  song  and  see  your  banners  shine. 

15 


Know  that  we  too  would  share  your  toils  divine, 
On  self  and  madness  hastening  their  end. 

Lo !  from  our  Age  we  send 
A  music  brief  and  broken  and  august 
To  mingle  with  your  own,— 
A  strain  from  silence  flown, 
Saying  we  too  have  hungered  to  the  sky, 
And  built  from  many  tears  and  humble  dust 
A  Dream  that  shall  not  altogether  die—- 
The vision  of  that  day 

When  human  strength  shall  serve  the  common  good, 
And  man,  forever  loyal  to  the  race, 
Find,  far  beyond  our  seasons  of  dismay, 

The  guerdon  of  its  grace: 
One  hope,  one  home,  one  song,  one  brotherhood, 
And  in  each  face  the  best'beloved's  face. 


The  End 


16 


14  DAY  USE 

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